buckcluck
Chirping
- Sep 27, 2012
- 2
- 0
- 59
Cookie (the orange one) is an eleven year old pekin bantam. Her face is normally red. We noticed the dry skin on one side of her face a month ago and weren't sure what it was. It's built up since then and now is covering most of that side of face. The other side of her face is fine. We know she's a bit on the older side and don't want to take her to the vet unless it's really needed because that'd stress her out. We aren't sure if it's maybe caused by lice or scaly foot, or if older birds can perhaps get dry skin in the cooler months? We've tried dabbing a little of the lice stuff on her face but haven't noticed any difference so far.
She had poultry lice and a mild case of scaly foot a few months ago (no lost toes or bleeding but pretty thick scales) - we've been treating her for that and her feet are now mostly fine and lice nearly gone but we're still spraying her every now and then. She's potentially the greediest hen we've ever seen and appetite has not been affected, still drinking fine (if she looks grumpy in the photo, it's because we put food down just before photoing her). No changes in weight either, she's always been a little chubby, poop seems fine. She's generally quite active and loves to be picked up and shown attention, so no changes in character. Cookie is joint top of the pecking order and doesn't tend to get picked on - she does occasionally get a peck on the head from Buckcluck or Snape if she's stealing their food but aside from that is trouble-free. No egg laying but she hasn't really been laying regularly for a good three years now. She's currently moulting. We're anxious that the dry face might spread.
Speckle (the grey one) is also an eleven year old pekin bantam. I've included a photo of both sides of her face so you can see the difference - one is red, the other almost dry. She spends most of her time cuddled up to Cookie and never gets involved in fights. She's very sweet but we reckon she's probably caught whatever Cookie has because of the snuggling. Her face has only looked like this for a few days now. Speckle has breathing problems from when she got a throat infection eight or so years back but other than that is perfectly healthy. She had very very slight scaly foot a few months back but not nearly as bad as Cookie's and that's now totally gone. She also had lice and again, we've been checking in with her and spraying her every now and then. Appetite and drinking is normal, weight is fine, no signs of trauma or bleeding. She's moulting and, like with Cookie, rarely lays anymore.
Our other hens in the flock who do not have any affected face skin - Buckcluck (15 year old pekin bantam, doesn't lay eggs anymore and falls asleep on the spot a lot but at that age, we can't blame her! seems perfectly healthy, eating loads, no scaly foot and only a few lice - she does have a slight lump above her eye but we think it must be a mole or something because it's not big and doesn't bother her), Snape (10 year old black silkie, eating lots, healthy, little bit of scaly foot, a few lice but not many, Snape kept getting crusty stuff in her eyes three weeks ago making her eyesight a bit poor, but I helped her get them out and she's now totally fine), George (5 year old silkie, small but eating lots, a few lice but not loads), Wynn (1 year old Wyandotte, greedy, no scaly foot and very few lice), Dot (1 year old Wyandotte, slight scaly on one foot appeared last week but we've been treating that, and barely any lice).
We treat our hens regularly for lice and scaly foot. The hen house is cleaned out weekly and always gets sprayed for red mites. It's one of those recycled plastic ones. There are no red mites.
If you have any ideas on what we should do, please let us know. The hens are more pets than anything else - we'll do anything to make sure they're healthy and happy.
She had poultry lice and a mild case of scaly foot a few months ago (no lost toes or bleeding but pretty thick scales) - we've been treating her for that and her feet are now mostly fine and lice nearly gone but we're still spraying her every now and then. She's potentially the greediest hen we've ever seen and appetite has not been affected, still drinking fine (if she looks grumpy in the photo, it's because we put food down just before photoing her). No changes in weight either, she's always been a little chubby, poop seems fine. She's generally quite active and loves to be picked up and shown attention, so no changes in character. Cookie is joint top of the pecking order and doesn't tend to get picked on - she does occasionally get a peck on the head from Buckcluck or Snape if she's stealing their food but aside from that is trouble-free. No egg laying but she hasn't really been laying regularly for a good three years now. She's currently moulting. We're anxious that the dry face might spread.
Speckle (the grey one) is also an eleven year old pekin bantam. I've included a photo of both sides of her face so you can see the difference - one is red, the other almost dry. She spends most of her time cuddled up to Cookie and never gets involved in fights. She's very sweet but we reckon she's probably caught whatever Cookie has because of the snuggling. Her face has only looked like this for a few days now. Speckle has breathing problems from when she got a throat infection eight or so years back but other than that is perfectly healthy. She had very very slight scaly foot a few months back but not nearly as bad as Cookie's and that's now totally gone. She also had lice and again, we've been checking in with her and spraying her every now and then. Appetite and drinking is normal, weight is fine, no signs of trauma or bleeding. She's moulting and, like with Cookie, rarely lays anymore.
Our other hens in the flock who do not have any affected face skin - Buckcluck (15 year old pekin bantam, doesn't lay eggs anymore and falls asleep on the spot a lot but at that age, we can't blame her! seems perfectly healthy, eating loads, no scaly foot and only a few lice - she does have a slight lump above her eye but we think it must be a mole or something because it's not big and doesn't bother her), Snape (10 year old black silkie, eating lots, healthy, little bit of scaly foot, a few lice but not many, Snape kept getting crusty stuff in her eyes three weeks ago making her eyesight a bit poor, but I helped her get them out and she's now totally fine), George (5 year old silkie, small but eating lots, a few lice but not loads), Wynn (1 year old Wyandotte, greedy, no scaly foot and very few lice), Dot (1 year old Wyandotte, slight scaly on one foot appeared last week but we've been treating that, and barely any lice).
We treat our hens regularly for lice and scaly foot. The hen house is cleaned out weekly and always gets sprayed for red mites. It's one of those recycled plastic ones. There are no red mites.
If you have any ideas on what we should do, please let us know. The hens are more pets than anything else - we'll do anything to make sure they're healthy and happy.
